XCVII. Report of the Otsego County Medical Society. Organized December, 1860. Annual meeting second Wednesday in June; semi-annual, second Wednesday in January. OFFICERS AND MEMBERS, 1871. Officers, President.-Dr. E. B. Warren. Vice-President.-Dr. A. B. Cossaart. Secretary and Treasurer.-Dr. J. I. Wallace. Censors. Drs. J. H. Foote, I. S. Blodgett and C. W. Fox. Delegates to State Medical Society.-Drs. E. B. Warren and J. H. Foote. Delegates to County Medical Societies.-Dr. R. E. Miller, to Broome county; Dr. N. Getman, to Oneida county; Dr. J. T. Wallace, to Madison county; Dr. M. Matteson, to Albany county. Essayist.-Dr. J. H. Foote. Medical Committees. Theory and Practice.-Drs. N. Getman and M. Matteson. saart. Prevailing Epidemics.-Drs. J. R. White, S. Warren and C. A. Guy. Honorary Members. Drs. T. C. White, Rochester; C. Bruchhausen, Norwich. Corresponding Members. Drs. S. C. Warren, Syracuse; J. R. White, New York. Members. Dr. Charles W. Fox, Morris, Otsego county. Merritt Matteson, 66 Erastus B. Warren, Middlefield, " T. S. Blodgett, Cooperstown, 66 Norman Getman, Richfield Springs, Otsego county. C. E. Ismond, Hartwick, J. H. Foote, Franklin, Delaware county. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. The tenth annual meeting of the Otsego County Homœopathic Medical Society was held at the Susquehanna House in the village of Otego Tuesday, June 13, 1871. The meeting was called to order at two o'clock P. M. In the absence of the president, Dr. J. H. Foote was elected president pro tem. ' Reports of standing committees being next in order, Dr. E. B. Warren, Chairman of Committee on Diseases Peculiar to Women, read a paper giving the history and treatment of a fatal case of fibroid enlargement of uterus, where post-mortem examination showed the organ to have attained an enormous growth, weighing thirty-four pounds. This article called out a lively discussion upon the treatment of this class of diseases. Dr. A. B. Cossaart, Chairman of Committee on Clinical Medicine, then brought before the society a young boy afflicted with tabes mesenterica, which presented many points of interest. The case was examined by all present, and remarked upon by Drs. Foote and Warren, after which it was prescribed for, with what success remains to be seen. Society then adjourned until evening. Evening Session.-Meeting was called to order by the president at half-past seven o'clock P. M. Dr. J. T. Wallace then read a paper on the subject of "Dose," discussing the comparative merits of the low and high potencies, claiming that homeopathy does not consist in the quantity of medicine given, but in the selection of the drug to be used, according to the law similia similibus curantur, and defined a homoeopathic dose to be the least possible quantity that will effect a cure. A copy of this paper was solicited for publication. Dr. E. B. Warren then reported in writing, several important cases treated by him during the past year by high potencies. Cases from practice were also reported by Drs. Foote and Cossaart. The society then proceeded to the election of officers for the coming year, the list of which has been already given; after which the society adjourned, to meet at Cooperstown the first Tuesday in June, 1872. 38 XCVIII. Report of the Rensselaer County Medical Society. Organized June, 1860. Annual meeting, third Tuesday in October; semi-annual, third Tuesday in June. OFFICERS AND MEMBERS, 1871. Officers.. President.-Dr. C. S. Woodruff. Vice-President-Dr. M. W. Campbell. Secretary and Treasurer.-Dr. C. G. Clark. Censors. Drs. R. D. Bloss, F. L. Vincent, M. W. Campbell, C. G. Clark. Delegates to State Society.-Drs. F. L. Vincent, E. S. Coburn, C. G. Clark. Nominees for Permanent Membership.-Drs. E. S. Coburn and M. W. Campbell. Medical Committees. Theory and Practice.—Dr. C. H. Carpenter. Special Pathology and Therapeutics.-Dr. C. S. Woodruff. Obstetrics.-Dr. J. P. Bloss. Surgery.-Dr. E. S. Coburn. Diseases of Females.-Dr. F. L. Vincent. Diseases of Children.-Dr. R. D. Bloss. Honorary Members. Drs. W. S. Searle, Brooklyn, N. Y.; J. Younglove, Elizabeth, N. J.; J. F. Miller, Cambridge, N. Y. C. G. Clark, cor. Fifth street and Broadway, Troy. E. S. Coburn, 91 Fourth street, Troy. H. E. Fuller, Lansingburgh, Rensselaer county. D. W. Pitts, Johnsonville, F. L. Vincent, 38 First street, Troy. Cow-POX AND THE BOSTON VACCINE INSTITUTION. By F. L. VINCENT, M. D. From the Troy Daily Whig, January 4, 1872. In these days of medical factions, jealousies and bickerings, it is refreshing to find in the system of vaccination one peg upon which we can all peaceably hang our hats; for vaccination is the acknowledged protector by all schools of practice, and has been advocated with unabating zeal since its promulgation by Jenner in 1796, with results manifest in the mitigation and near annihilation of the once fatally devastating epidemic, small-pox. In an article in one of our city papers some weeks since, a contributor avers, "that, in England, and to some extent in Germany and France, it is considered an established fact that the cow-pox of the cow and the small-pox of the human kind are one and the same. And we read of cows having been infected with small-pox contagion by enveloping them in blankets taken from the beds of those who had died with small-pox, and thus producing cow-pox. That this is erroneous the commission of Lyons and later authorities distinctly prove. Trousseau, in his "Clinical Medicine," confirms the opinion of Jenner, who strongly insisted that cow-pox originated in a peculiar disease of the horse, called grease; but that under this term, unfortunately, two totally different diseases were included; one, purely a local affection of the heels, the other a constitutional disease, with a general eruption visible in the mouth, and because of the absence of hair on the heels also. Jenner was a careful observer and reasoner, and in this his assertion of the origin of cow-pox, so long considered absurd, he is, after many years, proved not to have spoken idly." M. Chauveau, of the Lyons commission, makes his statement, "that small-pox can be easily communicated to the bovine species by inoculation, to which species it stands in the same relation as vaccinia to man; that is to say, that when an ox is inoculated with small-pox it is thereby made proof against cow-pox, just as a vaccinated man is proof against small-pox. A more practical point is, that small-pox, in its passage through the system of the cow, not transformed into cow-pox; it still remains small-pox, and returns to the original state of small-pox when reintroduced into the human system." The cat stricken with small-pox on North Second street, certainly by the imbibition of small-pox, did not develop cat-pox. The animal not only had the small-pox itself, but gave the infection to a member of the family. We must therefore conclude that cowpox is a zymotic or contagious disease, peculiar to the bovine species as the similar zymotic disease called small-pox is to the human species. is Vaccination, then, is the inducing in the system this disease called cow-pox; which disease is similar in many respects to small-pox and possesses the power of nullifying the latent tendency of the system to small-pox. The same as small-pox, after expending itself within the system, destroys the tendency to a repetition of the attack. We are all familiar with the history of Jenner's discovery. Suffice it to refer to the fact, that it was this disease called cow-pox, in the dairymen and women, that secured to them immunity from small-pox ; and all of Jenner's experiments and subsequent vaccinations were made with cow-pox lymph. And fearing, it is said, that his virus might deteriorate, he would travel England over to procure fresh supplies. We must remember that prior to Jenner's discovery the only protection from the ravages of small-pox was inoculation. This, though a protector to the individual majority, proved fatal and intensely severe in its action upon the individual minority, while to those unprotected the inoculated person was as infectious as smallpox itself; thus tending to the diffusion rather than the limitation of the disease, so that it was finally interdicted by law. We can, therefore, in part conceive the glowing enthusiasm of a man like Jenner, who finds himself the apostle of a new doctrine, a benefactor, a physical savior of his fellow men. And yet, with all the results of Jenner's experiments, in such marked contrast with the sad experiences of the inoculators, he was persecuted, vilified and misrepresented until he said he "was almost sorry he had ever made known his discovery." And his persecutors were not the uneducated masses, but the medical fraternity, whom education and zeal in the cause of humanity should have made co-laborers. These were the men who, as in the present day, were satisfied with the argument of the unreasonableness of the system," its "impurities" and its "dangers," and yet unwilling to investigate for themselves. 66 Since the days of Jenner, the original vaccinations with cow-pox have gradually given place to the more mild and less effective measure termed humanized vaccinia. This has been not sought after, but for many years, particularly in America, unavoidable. In Germany, England and France, vaccine institutions have been fostered by the governments, and, as in the National Vaccine Institution, the original virus, secured by Jenner's own hand, has been carefully transmitted from child to child, and thus kept in a comparative state of activity. The expense attending the procuring of cow-pox forced the physieians to measures of economy, and thus inaugurated the plan of using imported virus for the first vaccination, and from the crusts vaccinate others ad infinitum. Thus as an inevitable consequence, each remove from the original cow-pox deteriorated and radically changed its essential qualities as a protector from small-pox. And why! Simply because the cow-pox as a natural disease of the cow, finds in the system of the animal, so to speak, the natural soil for its propagation, and any deviations from this mode of propagation are made at the expense of the activity of the material. Thus Dr. Martin, of Boston, informs me he has thoroughly tested the effects of humanizing cow-pox, and comes to this conclusion: "That virus taken from the heifer, if introduced to the system of a healthy child, though it may develop in the child all the characteris ties of cow-pox, should the lymph from the child again be used, this time vaccinating a healthy heifer, entirely differing results are |